Google’s Eric Schmidt Pegs Ice Cream Sandwich For Mid-Fall Release

While at Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce conference, Google chairman Eric Schmidt let fly a juicy tidbit as he ran through how Android came to be. According to him, the next big version of Android is being prepared for release in the October/November timeframe.

Quoth Mr. Schmidt:

“We have a new operating system, internally known as Ice Cream Sandwich for some reason, which is being released in October/November, which everyone’s really excited about.”

This quick blurb has caused many a pair of ears to perk up; Ice Cream Sandwich is widely believed to power Samsung’s rumored Nexus Prime and Droid Prime handsets, which have been spotted receiving their Bluetooth and WiFi certifications respectively. What’s more, the Nexus Prime moniker was tacitly confirmed by Samsung, as a file on Samsung’s site reveals the device’s User Agent Profile.

The fact that the devices are far enough along to have received those certifications lend credence to the rumors of a mid-fall release, which (surprise, surprise) line up rather nicely with Schmidt’s timetable.

Ice Cream Sandwich, which was briefly spotted a few weeks back, is intended to create a unifying Android experience that reaches across both smartphones and tablets. If the stars align, and Ice Cream Sandwich and the Prime series handsets manage to launch in that autumn window, this holiday season may just be one for the phone geeks’ history books.